gvsucavie03, You got me there I'll admit. Very hypocritical on my part and quite embarrassing to say the least. It all boils down to reading so many articles like Powell's latest one on the Market Watch website. I think to myself what if interest rates slowly rise for 15 years and I lose money every...

After reading many books recommended on this forum and reading posts here from the last 2 years I already knew what kind of answers I was going to get. I just needed reassurance to stay the course. I still keep hearing these media-based visions in my head of shortening my duration but am going to tr...

Yes I have a horrible mentality when it comes to loses. I have a very bad habit of reading all the articles in Market Watch, Morningstar, CNN Money and all they do every day is scream at the people who own Intermediate bonds to sell, sell, sell NOW. The bond market will be horrifying for the next 10...

Another stupid rehashing of bond duration folks. I have read all the talk here about staying the course with our bond funds. We own about a 50/50 mix of Vangaurd Total Bond Index Admiral and Intermediate Bond Index Admiral in our IRA's and Roth IRA's. I rebalance in the Roth's with new money when ou...

Beck, your concerns are the same ones that a lot of us have on this forum. Remember that the bond portion of your portfolio is supposed to be for safety and not to make money. Even if interest rates continue to rise and TBM makes little or no money it is still better than losing 50% of your stock po...

I agree with the previous posters. I have had many different funds over the past few years in our IRA's and trying to chase performance is pointless. If I had to do it all over again learning the hard way, I would write my IPs, set my Asset Allocation and stick with it forever. You are young and wil...

According to Morningstar, Vangaurd International Growth has 16.25% Emerging Markets and International Value has 12% EM. If your international allocation was made up of a 50/50 split between these two funds it has about the same Emerging Markets and Total International and the active managed funds ha...

Good question. She and my Dad are very different. She is still very conservative with her money. She may think she might need it for a nursing home to gooble up if she lives to be 100. I can't blame her though because it is her money.

My apologies to you all for not using proper posting procedures. You are correct and I should have followed the procedures. I'll remember that next time. Sorry. My Mother probably will not need this money and will be handed down to my brother and I. My parents were farmers. Their retirement money co...

I'm afraid she would have a lot of long term capital gains as these stocks have been held for a long time. The only other portfolio she has is a small 401k with Fidelity since she still works. It only has about $6,000.00 in it. Thanks

Mother is 71 and doesn't want to put any new money into an IRA since she would have to take distributions. I don't know how much the divendend distributed but can tell you it it was from six large cap stocks like McDonald, Coke, Exxon, ect. Thank you for your help.

Mom has $70,000 in a brokerage account invested in 75% individual stocks and 25% cash. She wants to lower her equity allocation to 30% stock/70% bonds in a single fund that rebalances itself. This is NOT in a tax-advantaged account. We know that balanced funds are not as tax efficient as say Total U...

You have legitimate concerns like the rest of us who use bonds to balance out our portfolios. You can ignore the noise and stay the course like the last poster said or you can choose to increase your Short Term Bond portion of your allocation to lessen the volatility of interest rate risk. This bond...

Just curious what other Bogleheads percentage of short and intermediate bonds you hold. Our Ira's are 50/50 stock/bond with Vangaurd. We hold 14% Short Term Bond Index Admiral, 67% of both Total Bond Market Admiral and Intermediate Admiral, and 19% TIPS. We are thinking of selling some Total Bond an...

Thanks to all the replies. My wife's 50% Wellington/50%Wellesley are in tax-deferred Roth IRA. This really helps us with our decision about these two funds. I like the one comment about VG Equity Income and Short Term Bond fund to decrease the bond duration. We will own Wellington and Wellesley for ...

Thank you all for your replies. Even though these two funds overlap some on the equites side I like that you can get a 50%stock/50bond ratio by owning equal amounts of each fund. I will probably stick with my original IPS and buy and hold these funds through DCAveraging. Again thanks to all help me ...

Thanks for the help. I like these two funds because of the wrong reason -past performance. It is so difficult to get past that. I fear because of the Bogle "reversion to the mean" that these two active-managed funds may have subpar returns for a few years. I could be more diversified if I switched t...

I was wondering if anyone out there who owns Wellington and/or Wellesley are worried about what rising interest rates will do to these funds since the average duration of the bonds is 6.4 yrs? I have my Roth in Taylor's 3 fund index portfolio but my wife's is 50% Wellington and 50% Wellesley. This g...

Thanks dbr. I have to run right now. I greatly appreciate your wisdom and advice. I have a 50/50 mix of stock and taxable bond funds in our IRA's. I just wanted to add this CD money to my taxable account and let it grow for 15 years. Since VBIIX has an overall greater return even after taxes are con...

Thank you to Taylor and dbr. I'm not sure what to do. I know interest rates will go up soon and bond prices will fall. I wanted to invest a CD I have due into VBIIX or VWITX, but you guys are right. These funds could lose money for the next 10 years if rates rise slowly. How likely it is I don't kno...

RJ, I do plan to hold. I'm just looking at the last 10 years. Everyone bases what they can make by just looking at the dividends. You have to take in the bigger picture which includes the share price. Although no one knows if the past will repeat. Thanks for the reply, Daren

Thanks Chuck and dbr for your replies. I understand the funds invest in different bonds and what types of accounts they should be in. Here is what I don't understand. If you look at the 10 year averages, I would still be better off with VBIIX in a taxable account after I take out my taxes in the 25%...

Could someone please help understand why everything you read on the web does not look at the total return of these two bond funds? I am in the 25% tax bracket and have no state income taxes. I know how to use the bond equivalent calculators to see if the yield is better for me using the Vangaurd Int...

You are right. I'm stressed over this stupid market's volatility. It is just a waste of precious time to even follow what the market does daily. Can I blame it on the media? I doubt it. It's my own fault for watching what the markets are doing. The media loves this volatility and people watch and ea...

Retiredjg, thank you so much for taking the time to help answer my question with your responses. It has been very helpful and I can't tell you how much it means that you care. I just wish I could make up my mind if I should move to Vangaurd or purchase all Spartan Funds but I will have to decide tha...

retiredjg, sorry about the confusion. I shouldn't have said portfolio. I should have said the IRA portion of my portfolio. I don't care about the Roth right now. It is too small to matter. I am just concerned about what to do with the Fidelity account. Any more help would be greatly appreciated. Tha...

Landy, sorry I forgot to tell you I make a one time payment to our Roths to Vangaurd Inter.Term Bond index for $2600 then make the $100 payments automatically for the rest of the year to max them out at $5000 each. I like your suggestions but I am losing sleep over the volatility in my Fidelity acco...

Thanks Gamma and Landy. We dollar-cost average into the Roths putting $100 each/month into the TSM and International TSM at Vangaurd. I also have been putting $200/mo into the STAR to get some bond exposure. The reason I chose STAR is because of the lower $1000 minimum to get started. I'm thinking I...

Thanks Landy and livesoft and all who have replied. I have read many books on investing including the ones you suggested. My main question is should I go through the hassle of moving the IRA from Fidelity to Vangaurd or just stick with Fidelity's Spartan Funds. This IRA is a rollover from a 403b we ...

Hello Bogleheads, I currently have an IRA with Fidelity. I am invested in almost entirely actively managed funds My asset allocation is way too aggressive for my age. I am 47 and the portfolio consists of 95% equities/5% bonds. I am in funds like Contrafund, Low Price Stock, Emerging Markets, Divers...

Thanks to all of you who took the time to reply. I have learned a great deal and you have opened my eyes about performance and index funds. Since my IRA is already at Fidelity does anyone think I should just invest in their Spartan Funds? Fido doesn't have many choices unlike Vangaurds index funds. ...

Paul, I think part of what you are saying then is that the performance of a fund varies so much with the date that you bought the fund. Also, I don't know if I would sell the fund or not if Joel T. left. Thanks again for all your help. Daren

Does anyone out there trust Dan Wiener and his advice or is it just a bunch of crap? Also I would like some advice about a 60% stock/40% bond porfolio of both index and active-managed funds. Does anyone know which funds Dan uses?

By then it will be to late and I will have either failed miserably or done very well. It is so confusing. I am wasting too much time researching funds. It is stupid. If I go to Edward Jones they say buy my funds. They are actively managed. They will beat the market almost every year.

Thanks Paul, I'm aware of what Vangaurd Growth fund's returns look like and you are right. What I see though is if you look at a Morningstar performance chart and compare Fidelity Low Price Stock which is a small to midcap blend, to Vangaurd's small or small value stock and if you put in $10,000 15 ...

Thanks to all that have replied. This is my first time on the forum and I love it!!!! This is crazy. I already have been helped somewhat. I need someone to convince me without a doubt that indexing is the way to go. Wiener says it is all hype and propaganda. Who do I believe? Who can anyone trust?

To sometimes investor - Thank you for the reply. Your right about Fido gettting to big before they close a fund. The managers at Conta and Low Price Stock have a stellar performance record but your right. No one knows if they can keep it up. Daren

To livesoft -great point about what index to compare Contra to. It owns mostly large but also has some medium, small and a little international. What does it matter what index to compare it to if you had bought the 500 index and it still beats it over the last 10 years? Thank you so much for the rep...

Thanks for answering me back Paul but I still didn't get my question answered. I see what you are saying that all the research may be meaningless if the past performance isn't repeated again. Isn't anything that Dan Wiener says is true? Look at the Windsor fund. It has beaten its index and that of t...

I am new to the forum and I desperately need some advice from all of you. I have an IRA with Fidelity and am wondering if I should roll it over to Vangaurd and invest mostly in low-cost index funds. I know perfomance is no guarantee of future results but one still can look at past performance somewh...